If Vivienne Westwood is the grand dame of British fashion, then Paul Smith is undoubtedly its lovable king. Known for his signature stripes—which also grace plates, textiles, bicycles, stereos, and, soon, a Vinylmation figurine for Barneys New York's "Electric Holiday" collaboration with Disney—the designer boasts a career spanning more than five decades, not to mention a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) distinction courtesy of Queen Elizabeth II.

Even so, the Nottinghamshire native was disarmingly charming and modest as he gave ELLE.com a backstage preview at his sporty-chic offerings for Spring 2013. The icing on the cake? His killer Donald Duck impersonation.

ELLE: Talk about your inspiration for this season.

Paul Smith: Absolutely hardly any inspiration at all, you'll be pleased to know.

ELLE: The name Jean-Paul Goude has been thrown around.

PS: Well I suppose there is. It's very graphic, and I like the way Jean-Paul Goude sort of stretched things out. So when there is a little bit of print, we sort of slashed the print up a bit, which gives it a Goude feel. There are some really high-waist trousers with high heels so that the girl looks like she's about 100 feet tall, which is very him as well. He always loved to make everybody tall. But to be honest, the bulk of the collection is not really about anything. It's just nice, simple clothes. Quite graphic, there's lots of cut-up colors, cut-up shapes, and interesting mixes. So you've got lace with crêpe de Chine, a poplin shirt with lace cuffs…I suppose it's very Paul Smith, really. The unexpected. The fact that you can wear it, but it's got something going for it. It's ever so simple to wear. You know, hot day, pop the dress on, hot day, put the shirt on, cool pair of trousers. It's very fluid, quite a lot of volume in the shirts, lovely color, optimistic.

PS: And you know, there's a lot of worrying. We sell in 72 countries around the world, so there are a lot of countries where people are a bit nervous about spending lots of money on a whole outfit. Well you know you can just buy that shirt, and it goes great with a pair of jeans; or you could buy the trousers, and wear them with a white tee. You can add stuff to your wardrobe. I've had shops myself for a long time, so apart from being a designer, I sort of know what shops want.

ELLE: Going back to the London 2012 Olympics, you were chosen to design the only menswear suit featured in the Closing Ceremonies fashion show. That must have been a huge honor.

PS: More exciting was that I was the same size as him [male model, David Gandy], apart from a few muscles [laughs]. This bit, and this bit [gestures to his arms]. No, it was lovely to be invited and to be seen by, I don't know, half a billion people or something. He looked cool, as well. And he immediately requested if he could keep the suit, but unfortunately it had to go somewhere. Also, I was quite close to a lot of the Olympics stuff anyway, because I'm quite a keen cyclist so I did lots of promotional videos for the Olympics at the Velodrome.

ELLE: You were one of the first designers to see a market in branching out to other product categories like tableware. Are there other categories that you'd like to expand to down the road?

PS: We've been doing furniture. If it feels right, I do it. I'm quite a curious person so I quite like challenges that I wouldn't normally have, like making a pair of spectacles is such a long process in comparison to cutting a pattern for a suit, which takes half an hour.

ELLE: Can you talk about your involvement in the Barneys New York and Disney collaboration for the holidays?

PS: We've been asked to do a little bear who is stripey. It was all very simple to be honest.

ELLE: Do you have a favorite Disney character?

PS: I suppose it's the really old ones. Not because of my age, just because I think that they're so timeless. Mickey, Minnie, Donald [does spot-on Donald Duck impersonation], that sort of stuff.